Our "Pre-Christmas" in Lexington

This year, we tried to make Christmas last as long as possible :) Since we were planning to go to Arizona to spend Christmas with Grant's family, we decided to celebrate the Sunday before.  Monday and Tuesday were full days for us, as I worked 12 hour shifts and Grant took boards, and we flew out Wednesday, so Sunday just made sense. 
My mom sent a package with some presents and stuff for our stockings, so we each stuffed each others stocking the night before, wrapped presents and on Sunday morning we "opened" our stockings before church :) Keeping with tradition, we opened our Christmas PJs on "Christmas Eve" and went to bed with the twinkle lights on. 

Bicycle Christmas Eve PJs

After opening our stockings on Sunday morning, we went to church where we sang Christmas songs, etc. so it even felt a little bit like Christmas, and then we came home and opened presents :)

For dinner, we had Amanda and Jason over, since they would be moving to DC before we got back from Arizona :(  We had a fabulous time with them, and although we had lasagna instead of any sort of traditional Christmas food, I still got to use my cute Christmas dishes!

Aside from studying for finals, preparing for vacation, etc., I found some time to get crafty (I tell you, Pinterest is really having an impact on me :) In an attempt to do anything besides study, I taught myself to use the sewing machine I got for Christmas 2 years ago....
I made these REALLY cute little owls for my sisters, they are filled with rice so you can put them in the microwave and then put them in your pockets before going out on a cold day. I was pretty proud of my creation given that I just made up the pattern and made them using supplies I already had.

 

 Grant had some more intense tests than I did (my finals were pretty minor last semester), so the owls helped him study and be "wise." :)

Another little project I did was to make these coasters for my parents. They are Scrabble enthusiasts (I get pretty excited if I can win a game against either of them), so thought these would be fun, since I had some extra Scrabble tiles...each coaster has a different "theme" (beach, high scoring tiles, family, and snacks).

 And finally, because I didn't have a lot of time, I decided it wouldn't be wise to make 8 different kinds of cookies like I wanted to :) So, I had the thought that people could probably use a meal at this crazy time of year...so I made a few extra meals one day, wrapped them like presents, and handed them out. I just had to show how cute they turned out! Next year I hope to be able to do more of these, I thought it was a fun idea.  Notice the tags, they are chalk paint (another one of my new craft projects :)

 Our "Pre-Christmas" was a pretty good one (especially since the celebration lasted for over another week!)

The next stage...

 If you haven't already heard....

That's right! The board decided last Tuesday (the 29th) and we have been tirelessly checking Grant's email for the last week, waiting to hear our fate! Today we found out that Grant was accepted into a GPR (general practice residency), and will be stationed at Camp Pendleton!!! The news came on a perfect day, as we had freezing cold temps and apparently some snow flurries (although I was in a windowless classroom all morning/afternoon and missed this snow show all together).  

San Diego/Camp Pendleton had topped our "request list" so I didn't feel like it was a huge surprise, but I was still entirely prepared for a Chicago assignment, just in case. We are obviously excited for good weather, palm trees, the beach, In-N-Out and so many other wonderful things about California, but most of all we are excited to be almost in the middle between my parents and Grant's parents. It has been quite awhile since we've lived close to family, and although immediate family will still be several hours away, it is a doable weekend trip and a lot less expensive.

To celebrate, we took the afternoon off from studying, house hunted online for over an hour (I realize this is totally ridiculous, but it was still a lot of fun :)  and then went out to dinner at Saul Good (chose a restaurant that we would miss from Lexington)...

As evidenced by the picture, Grant still has a mustache...and his deal to me was that if we got orders to southern California that he would get to keep it until Christmas, but anywhere else, he would shave it when we heard. So, if there is any negative to this job...another 3 weeks of the mustache is it! (but I guess it's a small price to pay in the long run :)

It is still a little bit unbelievable...the fact that we will be done with school, have a real income, be moving to California, be leaving Lexington, etc...it's going to take awhile to sink in. Unfortunately we have finals and boards to study for in the meantime, so all the dreaming will have to be put on hold for a bit!